The Devil you Know

A while back, I started going to operation and work sessions with a model railroad club over in Jeffersonville. Great bunch of people, very open and with a great model of promoting the hobby. They have a sweetheart of a deal with their landlord - the club layout is in a church's basement, and in return for the space, the club helps out with activities, tech support, building improvements, things like that. So, the club, the Southern Indiana Railroad, has this big nice HO scale layout. My small transportable home layout is N scale. Thursday, I cashed in my spare change jar at a Coinstar kiosk, and had a nice little bit of money to spend. So, went over to Roundhouse to talk about HO and DCC and such - and went home with a gorgeous Atlas Dash 8 40-B in CSX Bright Future colors. Took it to the meeting that night, and the old hands set me up with a controller and I got to run for a while. Lord have mercy. It's just a delight. Built-in sound - engine, horn, bell; the cab has engineer and conductor figures; the trucks and roof are weathered. And since it wasn't in its package, it was part of the store's 40% off sale, so I made out like a bandit.

Sent three boxes of gaming stuff off to Noble Knight, and have one more to send once they send me another FedEx shipping label. Got a good store credit offer, nowhere near the MSRP of this stuff, but whatever, it's gone and I'm fine with that.